I'm Grape-ful for September

September is the time of year when the grapes begin to harvest in Italy and, oh boy! Do these grapes ever taste good! Recently when we were driving along, we were following little mini trucks with the back full of newly harvested grapes. I wanted to dive in and eat my way out. Besides thte vast vineyards, they hang off people's entrance ways and in their little gardens, just like you see in this picture. It is just delightful to see the hanging grapes.

Our September was packed full of things to see and do. One of the first things that happened in September was attending the Milan Mission Sr. Missionary Conference. For this one, we gathered in Vicenza on the east side of northern Italy - about three and half hours from Genova. Since neither Hermes or I enjoy road trips and driving long distances, we decided to go a day early so we wouldn't be exhausted when the conference activities started. On our way we stopped at the Garda Lake and visited a town called Sirmione which we last visited together back in 1996 - the first time Hermes brought me to Italy and the year after we got married. We remembered that in 1996 we had the best gelato and this visit didn't disappoint us on the gelato front either. Actually, the town is full of gelaterias all of them looking delicious.

Sirmione is at the end of a long peninsula jutting into the Garda Lake and has both a castle and an ancient Roman villa that belonged to a famous Roman poet. We didn't do the villa this time but we really enjoyed wandering the town and taking in the beautiful Garda Lake scenery. The town was full of tourists, most notably German tourists, who frequently holiday at the Garda Lake. Also, children in Italy don't go back to school until mid-September so there were end of summer Italian holiday-goers there too.

The next day at our hotel in Vicenza, we met up with the other senior couples for our first excursion to Asiago, home of the Asiago cheese. And our excursion was, you guessed it, a cheese factory. Asiago is in a picturesque area of the Italian Alps with deep green pastures, dairy cows with clanging bells around their necks and pretty little alpine villages.  The tour was really quite fascinating; making cheese is quite a process!

Our tour guide in this picture is displaying a wheel of cheese that is worth €1600 (about $2400 Canadian dollars) because it has been aged nine years. It was about to be entered into a cheese festival to take place in Asiago with cheese makers from all over Italy attending.





The next morning we all went into the city of Padova to see the Scrovegni Chapel. It's less famous than the Sistine Chapel but a chapel full of wonderful art by Giotto. Here are some pictures of what we saw:

Overall picture of the chapel

The betrayal with a kiss

Medieval concept of Hell

A depiction of Envy

The really big highlight of the conference was the opportunity to attend the medieval chess show in Marostica. I had known about this show and thought it would be wonderful to attend and was thrilled that this was on the agenda of our conference. The Marostica show takes place for three nights once every two years and involves about 600 people from the community. It is a celebration of all things medieval but is also based on a local legend where the duke of the Marostica castle settled a dispute between two knights who wanted to marry his daughter. Instead of settling the dispute through combat, he proposed they play a Chess match. So in the center of the Marostica castle there is a giant chess board and they use living people in medieval dress as the chess pieces. It is an absolutely spectacular show and I do have pictures, but I think this You Tube video would give you a better look at what it is.

The next morning (Saturday), we had the spiritual component to the conference (otherwise it wouldn't be a conference, right?) and had a meeting with President and Sister Allen and the other senior couples. It was lovely and uplifting. We then drove home to Genova and didn't dilly-dally because Hermes' daughter Francesca along with her husband Jerad were coming for a visit and were flying in that evening to Genova. Well that visit brought it's first surprise as Francesca showed off her baby bump to us at the airport. We didn't know! They had kept it a secret from us in order to tell us in person. She will have a boy in January. We were shocked!

On the Monday after they arrived, we went with them to see Santa Margherita Ligure and then took a ferry to nearby Portofino. Portofino is an absolutely gorgeous and fairly famous little riviera village with a very protected harbour. Portofino was a haunt of classic movie stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Liz Taylor back in the 1950s who came on their yachts. From what I've observed, the wealthy still come there in their fancy yachts. 

The rest of the week was devoted to missionary work as Francesca and Jerad went off to France by themselves for a few days before returning to Genova on Friday. Then on Saturday we went with them again up to Trentino in the Italian Alps stopping at his lovely viewpoint of the north part of the Garda Lake on the way.

Looking around Cavedine

The reason for going into that region was to see ancestral villages. You see, what is a rather funny coincidence, the Michelini come from an alpine village in Trentino called Comano and Jerad's ancestors on his father's side, the Bonetti, come from a village on the other side of the mountain from Comano called Cavedine. While the two villages didn't interact (so there's likely no chance of Jerad and Francesca being related to each other), it is a funny coincidence.

Little chapel in Cavedine

So we went to Cavedine first so Jerad could set eyes on where his grandfather and great grandparents came from before emigrating to Canada and settling in southern Alberta. We wandered the village a bit before going into the sleepy town square where a couple of people were sitting having wine outside the bar. Hermes struck up a conversation with them and asked if there were still Bonetti families in the town. He was told that the village is full of Bonetti and if we'd been there an hour earlier, they could have introduced us to quite a few. Hermes explained that Jerad's ancestors came from this town and the lady said that just the week before, a group had gathered in the village to go over the genealogies of people in the town. And then she started making phone calls, and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in the living room of a couple in the village. The man is a distant relative of Jerad and still had his father's old address book which contained Jerad's great grandparents address in Canada. He was also a prolific family historian and ended up giving Jerad about five generations of his family's genealogy and some published books about Cavedine. It was quite the experience!

After Cavedine, we took the drive over the mountain to Comano so Francesca could experience where her ancestors come from. We stayed in a little hotel there and wandered the cemetery (full of Michelini) and then the village. At one point, I got tired of them straggling so I left them behind and walked up through the village to the other side where I found a bench with a wonderful view of the valley and the mountains. The church bells from not only Comano but other more distant villages dotting the valley were ringing and the sun was setting behind the mountains. I have to say, it was one of the most peaceful moments I have ever experienced.

The next morning, Francesca and Jerad took us to Verona where we said goodbye and they dropped us off at Church. They were going to visit her cousins on her mother's side for a few days before flying home from Verona. After church, we took the train back to Genova.

Our work in Genova has become busier. I am now the leader of a BYU Pathway group that does our weekly gatherings on-line via video conferencing. I have never been one to like the video chat thing very much but I'm having to get used to using it and become more comfortable. In my group there are seven students from all over Italy, two from France, three from Portugal and two from Angola. They are quite a diverse group from people without any post-secondary education to a PHd student who also wants to do this program to improve her English and get another degree from BYU. My role is to try to shepherd these students successfully through the program and when they finish, they can begin certificate or degree programs related to their career plans. It's a fabulous program!

We continue to make visits to people and to attend some young adult functions. Hermes had the brilliant idea of buying a dart board for the young adults for the center and this has proved to be very popular with them. They are a great group of young people.

And we love the young missionaries who serve with us in Genova. They work so hard and are the loveliest, nicest young men and women you could ever be privileged to know. I recommend these young people from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to you. Even if you're not interested in their message, you will not be sorry to have their friendship.

So as the sun sets here in Genova, I am going to say arrivederci for now!